In his first Major League Soccer appearance in nearly a decade, Carlos Bocanegra’s task – along with the rest of Chivas USA’s defense – to help secure the Red-and-White’s first victory in 14 matches on Wednesday was made even more challenging playing a man down beginning in the 25th minute. The Goats were left a man short when midfielder Eric Avila was sent off with a straight red on what the referee deemed as an excessive tackle.

Nevertheless, the two-time World Cup veteran and former U.S. Men’s National Team captain got to celebrate the 1-0 shutout at the end of the night in front of the home crowd in his debut with the Rebaño Angelino. Starting at center back, Bocanegra played the entire match and helped goalkeeper and captain Dan Kennedy record his second clean sheet of the season as they also helped deliver the Rojiblancos their fourth result in the last five games.

“First of all it’s nice to be back in Los Angeles,” Bocanegra said after the match. “It’s very nice to be back home playing in my hometown and obviously with the win, it made it pretty good as well. Personally it was a very nice experience.”

At the age of 34, Bocanegra will be looked upon to bolster a young Chivas squad with experience and stability on the back line. Yet, the former two-time MLS Defender of the Year and Rookie of the Year during his stint with the Chicago Fire, says he is not coming into the squad as a mentor, but as someone who will lead by example.

“I just need to come in here and do my job,” added Bocanegra. “We have very good leaders in our team. We are a young team but we are learning. They’re good guys, they are receptive, they work hard and we are going to get better.”

The young squad showed poise against TFC, limiting the Canadian side’s chance as much as possible and manage to put pressure with their attacking players, most notably forward Erick “Cubo” Torres, who was also making his Chivas USA debut as a member of the starting eleven.

And if first impressions are the most important, Bocanegra and his new teammates alike must have surely been impressed with the effort that put forward in the hard-fought result.

“We showed a lot of character after we hadn’t won in a long time and we were down a man, and the guys still kept on fighting. So for me that was very good to see that all the guys kind of stuck together and fought for each other.

“One thing that I will take from this game is that the guys fought for each other and that’s a very hard thing to do if you haven’t won in a while. Hopefully we can use this as a turning point for the rest of the season,” Bocanegra concluded.